Bright Futures

Here in the Valley, spring usually brings baseball games, time outside and enjoyable temperatures. Along with these also comes pollen allergies that may interfere with your child’s ability to enjoy the outdoors. As summer approaches and temperatures warm up, many families look to outdoor water activities to beat the heat — and with summer, comes a new wave of seasonal allergies.

Has your child had to miss out or leave an event due to constant sneezing, itchy eyes or runny nose? Have people constantly wondered if your child has COVID-19? Has your child’s asthma or eczema become worse, leading to more frequent doctor or hospital visits? Phoenix Children’s Allergy & Immunology Clinic is here to help! Much of these can be avoided with more education on what your child’s triggers are and how to better manage them.

Hay fever, coined in the early 1800s since the “odor” of hay seemed to cause symptoms, is known medically as allergic rhinitis. Those with eye symptoms may also have allergic conjunctivitis. Symptoms include:

• Itching in the nose, roof of mouth, throat, and eyes
• Sneezing
• Stuffy nose (congestion)
• Runny nose
• Tearing eyes
• Dark circles under the eyes

When these symptoms are present, our team can perform simple tests to determine what indoor or outdoor allergies are present. This can include testing the blood or skin testing. Common outdoor triggers based on skin testing patterns seen in Phoenix and Scottsdale include Bermuda grass, Timothy grass, Russian thistle (a weed), lambsquarter (a weed), and ash tree. In June, levels of ragweed and palo verde predominate outdoors.  When you know what your child is allergic to, you can better avoid these triggers. Occasionally, no allergies are present on testing and other causes or testing is then recommended.

For accurate pollen and mold counts, Phoenix Children’s Allergy/Immunology Clinic has partnered with Mayo Clinic Arizona to establish a program in which samples are collected from each location and reported to the National Allergy Bureau. You can subscribe to the National Allergy Bureau’s email alerts here. Right now, pollen counts are highest for mesquite tree and juniper (cedar) tree.

Many parents (and children) dislike taking daily medications for their allergies. For some, the mediations aren’t effective. Thus, in addition to prescribing medications, we also offer allergy shots to help provide long term relief and “tolerance” to prior allergens.

Expanding access to allergy/immunology care

Phoenix Children’s Allergy & Immunology Clinic has expanded to the East Valley and Avondale. Both locations offer treatments for a variety of conditions including allergies (seasonal, animal, food, and medications), asthma, eczema, immune deficiency and more. Allergy testing and allergy shots are also available at these locations.

Authors

Cindy Salm Bauer, MD
Dr. Cindy Bauer founded the Phoenix Children's Allergy and Immunology Clinic in 2013. Her areas of interest include food allergy, eosinophilic esophagitis, asthma, allergic/atopic diseases, and immunodeficiencies. She has authored multiple peer reviewed manuscripts/abstracts and currently is participating in several multi-center NIH funded studies including the ORBEX study, the PARK study (Preventing Asthma in High Risk Kids), the Multicenter Airway Research Collaboration studies (learn more at http://www.emnet-usa.org/Marc_35/M35.htm), and more. She is passionate about medical education and serves as Site-Director for the Mayo Clinic Arizona/Phoenix Children's Hospital Allergy and Immunology Fellowship and is Director for the Allergy and Immunology Resident Rotation.

In the community, Dr. Bauer is involved with Camp-Not-A-Wheeze (serving as the Medical Director of this non-profit organization) and Arizona Allergy and Asthma Society (serving as Vice President). Dr. Bauer is committed to providing excellent and compassionate patient care in the field of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She offers the most up-to-date diagnostic and treatment options, and she strives to partner with a child's other care providers to identify and treat allergic/immunologic conditions.

Outside of work, Dr. Bauer is married and has 3 children. She enjoys spending time with her family and therefore often visits her hometown in Wisconsin.

Heidi Schmidt, PA-C
Physician Assistant
Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Phoenix Children's Hospital